Need, importance and benefits of digitisation of public sector by using digital technologies as an integrated part of its service delivery mechanism cannot be overemphasised. However, despite recognizing the need for the digitization of public services, governments in the developing countries are not giving it the importance it deserves. In this presentation, I discuss the four areas to focus, four public policy issues to tackle and four steps to take for putting a country to its long-term trajectory of digital transformation

1. Shahid Hussain Raja
Author/Consultant/Trainer
www.shahidhussainraja.com

2.  Introduction
 What is Digital Governance
 Need for Digitisation
 Why Digitisation not given priority in developing countries
 Four Areas of Action
 Four Issues to Tackle
 Four Actions to introduce Digitisation
 Conclusion

3.  Need, importance and benefits of digitisation of public sector by
using digital technologies as an integrated part of its service
delivery mechanism cannot be overemphasised.
 However, despite recognizing the need for the digitization of
public services, governments in the developing countries are not
giving it the importance it deserves.
 In this presentation, I discuss the four areas to focus, four public
policy issues to tackle and four steps to take for putting a country
to its long-term trajectory of digital transformation

4. “Digital Government refers to the use of digital technologies, as
an integrated part of governments’ modernisation strategies, to
create public value. It relies on a digital government ecosystem
comprising government actors, non-governmental
organisations, businesses, citizens’ associations and individuals
which supports the production of and access to data, services
and content through interactions with the government.”
OECD 2014

5.  Improving governance through greater transparency and
accountability of government functionaries
 Helps governments to ensure efficient and effective service delivery
 Most cost effective-fraction of the costs incurred by providing the
same services through traditional means.
 creating an open, participatory and trustworthy public sector,
 Helps to improve socioeconomic inclusiveness essential for long-
term sustainable growth.

6.  Lack of supporting public policies and ICT infrastructure,
 Uncertain economic environment,
 Cyber threats and security concerns
 Lack of organizational leadership skills to execute
 No urgency to counter industry disruptors
 Capacity deficit of the public servants coupled
 Inherent tendency of bureaucracy to resist the change

7.  There are four areas which need close attention.
◦ Quantity/Range of Services
◦ Quality of the Services
◦ Access-area wise and types of population segments
◦ Affordability without Compromising Quality
 All these four interdependent and interrelated; here discussed
separately for ease of understanding and policy formulation

8.  Difficult to prepare an exhaustive list of public goods and services
 Online voter registration, casting of votes, issuing of benefits entitlement
vouchers, depositing of government dues, filing income tax returns etc
 However, prioritization is essential for digital transformation/ upscaling
 Best course of action is to prepare the list, prioritize them per the ease
of their digitization, needs of the citizens and availability of resources.
 Pilot with low volume services, learn lessons along the way and gradually
move towards high volume but labour intensive services.

9.  Providing services online instead of offline is no guarantee of
improved quality of service by state institutions
 However, good reasons to believe that digital governance can
and has resulted in improved services.
 Firstly, the basic objective of the digitization is to improve the
quality of public goods and services; as such no government
agency, can afford to be negligent on this count.
 Secondly, being interactive & accessible to millions online has
its own corrective mechanism

10.  Thirdly, slackness in providing quality services will immediately
become topic of discussion on social media, forcing the political
elite to take remedial measures to save their own skins.
 Fourthly, most of these services will be handled by the
professional people and majority of them will be outsourced to
the private sector. Professional management and private sector
involvement are strategic drivers for improved services.
 Lastly, very technological architecture of digitization is based on
streamlining of services by creating appropriate algorithms for
automatic classification, location and retrieval by end users.

11.  Paradigm shift-instead of a stakeholder coming to your office, the state
is to provide the services at his/her doorsteps, a click away
 Ensure its across the board availability to the rural areas and remote
corners-an uphill task but not impossible-Smart Villages!
 Creating centralized agency with provincial and local branches
 Appropriate and cost effective way to economize on scarce human
resources and avoid unnecessary fragmentation of service providers.
 Centrally linked provision of services on range of platforms with similar
access requirements, can ensure seamless experience for the end users.

12.  One of the most beneficial aspects of digitization is its comparative affordability
even by the poorest of the poor for two reasons
◦ Savings to be made by the public in terms of time and resources spent by them to
visit offices if the state provides them the same services online.
◦ Providing the public services online instead of creating brick and mortar
structures for this purpose.
 However, the state must pass on these savings dividends to the public and must not
cash on them by pricing the online services at same rate as are applicable off-line.
 Devise pricing structure keeping affordability threshold of poor as bench march
rather than recovery of costs for the provision of these services as its prime motive.
 Some services must be free to everyone but for other online public service should
not be priced more than one-tenth of its off-line cost to the end consumer.

13.  All along the road to digital transformation of the public
services, there will be issues to tackle-four need special
attention
1. Managing the Task
2. Cyber Security
3. Managing the Change
4. Bridging the Digital Divide

14.  Digital transformation-huge societal project, classic management
challenge
 multiple stakeholders continuously handling huge amount of data
 Uncertainties involved in the entire process-timely availability of
requisite resources to avoid project execution delays,
 Rapid technical change making technology redundant in few years
 Shifting priorities of the changing political regimes.

15.  Typical turf wars among various government institutions
creating difficulties in pooling of information and its sharing
 Diffused ownership of information to be collected
 Diversity of services to be provided, ensuring their ready
availability and almost free of cost access.
 Critical shortage of specialized expertise.

16.  Like every technology, digitisation has its dark side also-lethality,
frequency and duration of cyber-attacks have increased manifold
in recent past and are likely to increase still further.
 Greater digitisation provides more opportunities for hackers who
are increasing in number and improving their sophistication, the
 However, slow pace of counter-cyber-attack technologies is
making the situation even more complex.
 Make cyber risk a priority only next to service delivery, ensuring
network security, malware protection and secured configurations
as the cornerstones of cyber security strategy.

17.  Technological changes being very disruptive due to their inherent logic,
are a great source of stress for the public servants.
 Digitisation of public services is not an incremental change, rather
paradigm shift demanding attitudinal and behavioural changes
 Imagine the anxiety and frustration of public servants who is to change
entire framework of thinking and doing the normal work.
 Manage this change scientifically through improved personal
competency and constant capacity building of those involved
 Provide congenial working conditions and amiable cultural environment.

18.  Technology is double-edged weapon for creating inequalities or bridging them.
 Left to itself, it favours those who already have and leaves out the have-nots.
 Totally illiterate, will be worst affected while those who are not sufficiently
tech-savvy will get less benefits from greater digitisation of the public services.
 One way to help them is to encourage the development of maximum user-
friendly apps., in local languages which should also have audio interaction
facility.
 Establishment of public portals at community centres where dedicated staff is
available to help those who can’t use these services
 Providing public services on mobile platforms is convenient and cost-effective

19.  Like any other public policy issue, these are the four standard
steps to be taken for the implementation of a comprehensive
plan of digital transformation of the country
1. Formulation of Long Term Vision
2. Legal/Regulatory Framework
3. Creation of Institutional Mechanism
4. Implementation Strategies

20.  Any transformation starts with a long-term vision where the country would be in
medium to long term in terms of digital transformation,
 Remember, total commitment at the political and executive levels is the most
crucial element for successful and sustainable implementation of any plan of action.
 Help political elite in the formulation of a long-term vision by making them aware
of the need, importance and the benefits of digitising public sector for the citizens
 Explain to them how crucial digitisation of public services is for the realisation of
their goal to make the country a just, prosperous and modern nation-state
 Try to convince them that information highways are as crucial for the economic
growth of a country as motorways and another infrastructural project are.

21.  Afterwards assist the elected representatives in framing a comprehensive legal
regulatory framework which is sync with the globally accepted best practices.
 Some of the fields requiring clear cut policy formulation and legislative enactment
are accessibility protocols for stakeholders, data protection, E-Commerce
Frameworks, Public -Private Partnership Agreements etc.
 For this you do not need to reinvent the wheel; any good legislation already in force
anywhere in the world can be adapted and enforced with suitable amendments.
 Do seek the assistance of the donor agencies and the technocrats but use your own
knowledge and experience to draft practicable public policies
 This framework must be approved by the competent forums for its institutional
legitimacy and providing confidence to the stakeholders for its long-term continuity

22.  Implement the approved legislation by creating a robust but flexible institutional
framework which must meet two crucial tests-
1. Vertical Alignment-Sheer volume of data to be collected, collated and made retrievable,
demands its vertical alignment from the central to provincial and local tiers of the state.
2. Horizontal Linkage-It also needs to be linked horizontally with the public-sector
institutions as well as private sector entities at various levels of the vertical chain above.
 Portals provided at various levels for the public to access the services made
available for them online must be easy to navigate and interact.
 No need to be entirely innovative. You can find extremely useful and effective
models from across the globe. Leave it to the consultants to do the research

23.  Best of the legal framework and institutional mechanism can fail to deliver
results if not properly implemented.
 Attract the best technical and managerial brains, dedicated and hardworking
people with impeccable integrity to run these institutions.
 If such a talent is not available locally, employ expatriates or even foreigners
 Resist temptation of heading these institutions yourself because of better
terms & conditions of these posts; these are meant to attract the best talent.
 Keep yourself with regulation and the creation of an enabling environment
and let the whiz kids and the business champions run the show.

24.  Here a word of caution will be in order. ICT is a tool, not the solution; it
is means to ends, not the end itself.
 You must realize that ICT itself is not going to solve some of the
fundamental challenges faced by the state.
 Thus, if there is wrong data in our revenue record about the ownership,
possession and cultivation patterns of the agricultural farms, just
digitizing it and making it available online is a laudable effort.
 However, it is not the ultimate solution to the correction of the land
records nor it is going to make illiterate farmers tech savvy and
redressing the grievances of the farmers.

25.  Thank you for viewing the presentation. If you liked it, kindly show
your appreciation by clicking the like button, sharing it with your
friends on social media and recording your comments
 If not, please do tell me the points needing more elaboration/
correction in the comments section
 You can use the material wherever you like. However, as a
responsible student, I hope you will acknowledge it in your
assignment
 If you need its essay version(3000 words), kindly send your request
at shahidraja@hotmail.com

26. Thanks